I finally played my first singles match today. My doubles partner, Pam, and I warmed up at one venue, Frenchman’s Creek. We like it there; the people are friendly and there’s food out for the players  (fruit, bagels, etc…what tennis player doesn’t like free food?) and lots of warm up courts.

Then we went over to Jonathon’s Landing Golf Club which is in Jupiter, north of Palm Beach Gardens. I played Sylvie Primault from France. She was the #4 player on the bronze medal French team. It was windy but the courts were in excellent shape and newly watered and brushed. I won 61 61. Susan Wright, my Connolly Cup teammate, played the Swiss #1, Susanna Villaverde on the adjacent court and won 62 61. On the court next to me was Susan Boyer who is from Coral Springs and a member of the Lauderdale Club in Fort Lauderdale, as I am. She upset the #11 seed in the women’s 50s in two sets.

Susan, Pam and I left soon after we finished though, since Pam and I wanted to scout our potential opponents for tomorrow and Susan wanted to watch her brother Michael play. We got to PGA National in time to see much of the match. We play Betty Michel and Karien Theeuws from France and Netherlands respectively. Then we headed back to practice for a while before calling it a day.

There were a lot of Americans in action at all the sites today. Tracy Houk won in women’s 50s, rallying from 52 down first set to win 75 61. Judy Newman played the #1 seed in the women’s 50s, Brenda Foster,  and was down match points in the second set, rallied to win it 76, was up a match point at 54 in the third and Brenda sent a ball deep into the corner; Judy barely got it over the net; the wind blew it back onto Judy’s side of the net before Brenda could hit it, but Brenda (who is very tall) reached over the net, and touched it with the tip of her racket, and it died on Judy’s side of the court. Brenda ended up winning 76 in the third!

Sue Webb, who lives in Chatanooga, but plays under the British flag (but we forgive her, she’s playing with Fran Chandler from the USA in doubles) upset the #3 seed in the 50s, Lieselot Prechtel of Netherlands. She plays Ellen Neumann of Germany next.

I ran into a lot of players from all over, some of whom I hadn’t seen yet; Denis Dumas of Canada, playing with Charlton Eagle of Florida (and Webb in mixed); Dorothea Foks of Germany; Rick Leach, USA and others.

There are still too many matches to mention.

To see the draws, click here (and make sure you click on “order of play” which brings up another menu; click on “draws” on this second menu.